The present invention is in the field of bridge construction and, more particularly, to support structures for over-water bridges. The engineering challenges involved in designing and constructing large bridge structures, such as suspension bridges and cable stayed bridges are legion. The bridge structure must have sufficient strength to support itself, the design live loads such as traffic, while also withstanding environmental loads including, for example, wind and other dynamic fluid loads, potential seismic loads, and the like. Typically the bridge structure will be designed to provide both the requisite rigidity to react certain design loads, and a certain amount of flexibility to endure other design loads without catastrophic failure. Moreover, the bridge structure is generally intended to be a permanent structure, and therefore must be designed to maintain its strength and stability over time.
Of course, bridges are often built over bodies of water, and rely on support structures that extend into the body of water, and to and into the bed beneath the body of water. Such supports, which may comprise caissons and piers, for example, that extend generally from the bed, out of the water to the bridge deck.
Designing suitable support structures for use in estuarial bodies of water having relatively poorly defined sedimentary layers that include significant quantities of fine particles can be very difficult. The support structure generally must provide a very stable support that will transmit very large reaction forces to the ground, while also being flexible enough to withstand loads relating to large episodic events such seismic events, but must do so in a sedimentary environment that is not conducive to reacting such loads.